Schools have little choice but to cut back on courtesy busing

Michael Mancuso/The TimesChildren board a school bus at Reynolds Middle School in Hamilton in a 2007 file photo.

Public school education in New Jersey used to be an all-you-can-eat buffet. The school taxes would be siphoned from the mortgage payment, and just about everything was covered, including the four R’s — readin’, ’ritin’, ’rithmetic … and ridin’ (on the big yellow school bus). Heck, sports, wood shop, the chess club, even driver’s education (jittery instructor and all) were covered, too. That’s not automatic anymore.

We live in an à la carte world now. So that checked baggage is going to cost extra. Carry-on luggage, too. A funeral can run several thousand dollars, but if you want to be buried in New Jersey, it’s another five bucks for the state. User fees are the new business model.

One by one, financially squeezed school districts are charging for, or eliminating, courtesy busing for those who live less than 2.5 miles from school. Parents must now decide whether to buy their kids seats on the big yellow bus, drive the youngsters or let them walk, and they are not happy, as The Star-Ledger’s Kathleen O’Brien reported last week.

Many parents have legitimate complaints. They say the 2.5-mile cutoff (the threshold for those who must be bused, according to state law) is arbitrary — 2.49 miles from the school, you pay ($200 to $750 a year per student) or walk or drive. It could be argued that children who live the farthest from school are the most expensive to transport. Is it fair for closer households to foot that bill?

There are the safety issues, too. New Jersey isn’t pedestrian-friendly. Not every town has sidewalks, and the state is ribbed with mini-freeways, like Route 202 and Route 10 and Route 46 — treacherous thoroughfares that are no places for a kid on foot or a bike. Even in the sleepiest towns with clear, safe paths to school, parents still fear abduction. Increased traffic at the school, with kids scurrying in between cars, also is a concern.

But telling administrators to “Find the money!” ignores the new reality: Taxpayers are tapped out. Ultimately it’s the parents’ responsibility to get children safely to class, whether that means driving, carpooling or paying for a bus ride. With finite resources, districts must make judgments on what’s basic and what’s extra. And these days, the three R’s are costly enough.